More than €2bn from budget has yet to be allocated for spending next year

Government has yet to decide what to do with more than €2 billion that it has earmarked for spending next year.

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe set out plans to spend €96.6 billion next year on everything from civil servants’ pay and big infrastructure projects to boosting research and protecting nature. However, Budget 2024 documents show that Government has €2.19 billion for which it has yet to find a home.

The cash could be used for future day-to-day or capital spending, temporary cost-of-living aid and “certain further noncore expenditure” among other things, the documents note.

An increase in the cost of Army pensions will be 2.5 times the extra cash needed to meet the Defence Force’s standing costs, the figures show. Defending the State will require extra day-to-day spending of €6 million, while the Government will put aside €15 million to cover the cost of pensions for soldiers retiring in 2024. The entire cost will rise to more than €306 million from €294 million.

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The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s €979 million budget includes €3.3 million extra for companies developing products and services on European Space Agency infrastructure.

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According to Neale Richmond, Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, 97 Irish companies are now involved in this, from a State target of 100 by 2025. “So we are well on the way,” the Minister added.

Their products and services include using satellite technology to aid with everything from weather forecasting and transport logistics to measuring soil quality. Many of them are exporting, in some cases to the US and Australia.

Met Éireann will receive an extra €20 million next year, part of which will fund the establishment of a National Flood Forecasting and Advisory Service.

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State water company Uisce Éireann will get €1.6 billion next year for the operation, repair and upgrading of the Republic’s supply networks.

The company is gearing up for big projects including the Shannon extraction scheme, which will draw supplies from the Parteen Basin in Co Tipperary and transport it to the midlands, east and Dublin, where demand continues growing.

The State will spend €3.35 million on Enterprise Ireland’s Modern Methods of Construction Demonstration Park at Mount Lucas in Co Offaly, and the Construct to Innovate Technology Centre, overseen by National University of Ireland, Galway.

Government has also earmarked €166 million for heritage spending next year. This will continue “the transformation and renewal” of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

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That will partly focus on conservation measures at 600 protected site and for protected species, along with spending on national parks and nature reserves. Some of the cash will go to tackling wildlife crime.

Budget documents show that the State will pay its civil servants a total of €24.78 billion next year, 3.1 per cent more than the €24 billion they are set to have received by the end of 2023.

Finally, in line with previous years, Government has ring-fenced €2 million for the Secret Service.